VINYL: Ex

LABEL: Ex

COVER: VG+

The vinyl sounds superb. The cover has a slight ring mark showing at top and bottom of sleeve and the spine is a little rubbed in places. Overall though very good. Cleaned on a VPI Cyclone RCM. For photos and music review, see my .com site

Side 1

1. Dancing in the dark
2. Valentino
3. Laziest gal in town
4. Anyway my guru says No!
5. The Hearse
6. Sugar in my bowl

Side 2

1. So close
2. Fancy
3. I wanna roo you
4. Honesty
5. There’s something in the way he moves
6. The first time

You would be forgiven for being surprised that this was released in 1977. It could have come from any decade in the past 50. There are some little gems on here. She recorded this under the pseudonym of Joanna Carlin. I wonder why? Changing back to her real name, Melanie Harrold, it was interesting to find she is still preforming, touring last year and appearing at the Cambridge folk festival. A very interesting, and varied, journey over the years.

There are a queue of musicians credited to this LP and with titles written by a wide ranging selection of artists a lot of thought and preparation clearly went into this offering. It’s a very classy recording, beautifully composed and orchestrated and it all underpins Joanna’s consistent, well balanced vocals.

Even if you don’t know Joanna’s music or you wish to delve back into the history of some of the members of Daphne’s Flight (with whom she recorded and toured in 2017), this is well worth checking out. A nice piece of history, but as I remarked, it still sounds as fresh as if it were recorded in the recent past.